RATIONALISM IN ARCHITECTURE

The intellectual principles of rationalism are based

on architectural theory. Vitruvius had already
established in his work De Architectura that
architecture is a science that can be comprehended
rationally .
Twentieth-century rationalism derived less from a
special, unified theoretical work than from a
common belief that the most varied problems
posed by the real world could be resolved by reason.
In that respect it represented a reaction to
historicism and a contrast to Art Nouveau and
Expressionism.
EARLY 20TH CENTURY RATIONALISM

Architects such as Henri Labrouste and Auguste Perret

incorporated the virtues of structural rationalism
throughout the 19th century in their buildings. By the early
20th century, architects such as Hendrik Petrus Berlage
were exploring the idea that structure itself could create
space without the need for decoration. This gave rise to
modernism, which further explored this concept. More
specifically, the Soviet Modernist group ASNOVA were
known as 'the Rationalists'.
Rational Architecture thrived in Italy from the 1920s to
the 1940s. In 1926, a group of young architects –
Sebastiano Larco, Guido Frette, Carlo Enrico Rava,
Adalberto Libera, Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini, and
Giuseppe Terragni (1904–43) declared themselves '
Gruppo 7', and declared their intent to strike a middle
ground between the classicism of the Novecento Italiano
movement and the industrially-inspired architecture of
Futurism.
The hallmark of the earlier avant garde was a
contrived impetus and a vain, destructive fury,
mingling good and bad elements: the hallmark
of today's youth is a desire for lucidity and
wisdom...This must be clear...we do not intend
to break with tradition...The new architecture,
the true architecture, should be the result of a
close association between logic and rationality.
 EXPRESSIONIST ARCHITECTURE

Expressionist architecture was an architectural movement

that developed in Europe during the first decades of the
20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual and
performing arts.
The meaning has broadened even further to refer to
architecture of any date or location that exhibits some of
the qualities of the original movement such as; distortion,
fragmentation or the communication of violent or
overstressed emotion .
The style was characterised by an early-modernist
adoption of novel materials, formal innovation, and very
unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural
biomorphic forms, sometimes by the new technical
possibilities offered by the mass production of brick, steel
and especially glass. Many expressionist architects fought
in World War I and their experiences, combined with the
political turmoil and social upheaval resulted in an utopian
outlook and a romantic socialist agenda.
Economic conditions severely limited the number
of built commissions between 1914 and the mid
1920s, resulting in many of the most important
expressionist works remaining as projects on
paper.
The major permanent extant landmark of
Expressionism is Erich Mendelsohn's
Einstein Tower in Potsdam. By 1925 most of the
leading architects of Expressionism such as;
Bruno Taut, Erich Mendelsohn, Walter Gropius,
Mies van der Rohe and Hans Poelzig, along with
other Expressionists in the visual arts, had turned
toward the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)
movement, a more practical and matter-of-fact
approach which rejected the emotional agitation
of expressionism.
CHARACTERISTICS

 Expressionist architecture was individualistic and in many

ways eschewed aesthetic dogma, but it is still useful to
develop some criteria which defines it. Though containing
a great variety and differentiation, many points can be
found as recurring in works of Expressionist architecture,
and are evident in some degree in each of its works.
Distortion of form for an emotional effect.
Subordination of realism to symbolic or stylistic
expression of inner experience.
An underlying effort at achieving the new, original, and
visionary.
Profusion of works on paper, and models, with discovery
and representations of concepts more important than
pragmatic finished products.
Often hybrid solutions, irreducible to a single concept.
Themes of natural romantic phenomena, such as caves,
mountains, lightning, crystal and rock formations. As such
it is more mineral and elemental than florid and organic
which characterized its close contemporary art nouveau.
Utilises creative potential of artisan craftsmanship.
Tendency more towards the gothic than the classical.
Expressionist architecture also tends more towards the
romanesque and the rococo than the classical.
Though a movement in Europe, expressionism is as eastern
as western. It draws as much from Moorish, Islamic,
Egyptian, and Indian art and architecture as from Roman or
Greek.
Conception of architecture as a work of art.
 DE STIJL
 "The Style", also known as neoplasticism, was a
Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. De Stijl
is also the name of a journal that was published by
the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic
Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), propagating the
group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's
principal members were the painters
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Vilmos Huszár
(1884–1960), and Bart van der Leck (1876–
1958), and the architects Gerrit Rietveld (1888–
1964), Robert van 't Hoff (1887–1979), and
J.J.P. Oud (1890–1963). The artistic philosophy
that formed a basis for the group's work is known
as neoplasticism — the new plastic art.

In many of the group's three-dimensional works, vertical and

horizontal lines are positioned in layers or planes that do not
intersect, thereby allowing each element to exist
independently and unobstructed by other elements. This
feature can be found in the Rietveld Schröder House and the
Red and Blue Chair
 DE STIJL
Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a new utopian ideal
of spiritual harmony and order. They advocated pure
abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials
of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to
the vertical and horizontal directions, and used only
primary colors along with black and white.

"only primary colours and non-colours,

only squares and rectangles, only
straight and horizontal or vertical line."
 DE STIJL
The Guggenheim Museum's online article on De Stijl
summarizes these traits in similar terms: "It [De Stijl] was
posited on the fundamental principle of the geometry of
the straight line, the square, and the rectangle, combined
with a strong asymmetricality; the predominant use of pure
primary colors with black and white; and the relationship
between positive and negative elements in an arrangement
of non-objective forms and lines." In general, De Stijl
proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in
architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal
and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their
formal vocabulary was limited to the primary colours, red,
yellow, and blue, and the three primary values, black, white
, and grey. The works avoided symmetry and attained
aesthetic balance by the use of opposition. This element of
the movement embodies the second meaning of stijl: “a
post, jamb or support”; this is best exemplified by the
construction of crossing joints, most commonly seen in
carpentry.
De Stijl –Influence on Architecture

The De Stijl influence on architecture

remained considerable long after 1931;
Mies van der Rohe was among the most
important proponents of its ideas. Between
1923 and 1924, Rietveld designed the
Rietveld Schröder House, the only building
to have been created completely according
to De Stijl principles
 RIETVELD SCHRODER HOUSE
 The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was commissioned by Mrs Truus
Schröder-Schräder (1889-1985), and built in 1924.
 This house is one of the best known examples of De Stijl-architecture and
arguably the only true De Stijl building. The house was restored and now is
a museum open for visits. It is a listed monument since 1976 and UNESCO
World Heritage Site since 2000.
ARCHITECTURE:
 The Rietveld Schröder House constitutes both inside and outside a radical
break with all architecture before it. The two-story house is situated in
Utrecht, at the end of a terrace, but it makes no attempt to relate to its
neighbouring buildings. It faces a motorway built in the 1960s.

•Facades are a collage of planes and lines

whose components are purposely detached
from, and seem to glide past, one another.
This enabled the provision of several
balconies.. Colours were chosen as to
strengthen the plasticity of the facades;
surfaces in white and shades of grey, black
window and doorframes, and a number of
linear elements in primary colours.
Inside there is no static accumulation of rooms, but a
dynamic, changeable open zone. The ground floor can still
be termed traditional; ranged around a central staircase are
kitchen and three sit/bedrooms. The living area upstairs,
stated as being an attic to satisfy the fire regulations of the
planning authorities, in fact forms a large open zone except
for a separate toilet and a bathroom. Rietveld wanted to
leave the upper level as was, but the owner wanted should
be usable in either form, open or subdivided. This was
achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels.
When entirely partitioned in, the living level comprises three
bedrooms, bathroom and living room. In-between this and
the open state is a wide variety of possible permutations,
each providing its own spatial experience.
There is little distinction between interior and exterior space.
The rectilinear lines and planes flow from outside to inside,
with the same color palette and surfaces. Even the windows
are hinged so that they can only open 90 degrees to the
wall, preserving strict design standards about intersecting
planes, and further blurring the delineation of inside and out.